The Secret Portal

Once, a long, long time ago, there lived a girl named Laura Larose. She was eight and was loved by everyone. Everyday, she will go and buy vegetables from the market and buy fruits from the fruit stall. Her mother, Mrs. Larose, was a housewife and her father, Mr. Larose, was the town’s butcher.

She had every comfort and delight but she did not have one thing- any friends.

One day, she was feeding the goats her family raised when her parents called her for breakfast. They were having some carrots which Laura had bought from the market and some peas. After having breakfast, Mr.Larose went to sell red meat and Mrs. Larose went to her friend’s house because her friend was coming down with influenza. Laura was left alone in the house. She thought she will keep all the ironed clothes in the rightful cupboards. She first kept all her mother’s clothes in the cupboard and then her father’s clothes. When she kept all her father’s clothes, she thought of cleaning all the rooms. She wanted to go and see her grandfather’s room because it was locked for thirteen years. She had often heard her mother say to her father, ‘The key is safe in my cupboard.’ She thought of trying that key with the door. So she went to her mother’s cupboard and tried hard to find the key. At last she found it in the corner of the cupboard. It was rusted and was shaped like a crescent. She took it and tried it with her grandfather’s room’s door. As the key was rusted, it took some time to unlock the door but she did it. The room was full of dust and spider’s webs. She found another key on the floor next to a chair’s leg. She thought of using it for the cupboard in that room. So she took it and tried to open the cupboard. At last, she did it and when she did, she saw a bright glow inside it. She opened the cupboard fully and then everything was circling around her. She stopped and reached a beautiful meadow. She was confused and scared at the same time. Where was she? How did she get to the meadow? Then she had a faint memory that she had been in her grandfather’s room. As she thought this, a bunny with light blue eyes came and welcomed her to Funland where all children from different cupboards came and enjoyed with the other bunnies. Laura was afraid that she was somewhere far, far away from her house talking with a blue-eyed bunny! The bunny understood the expression on her face and told her, ‘Oh! You are a newcomer to Funland! I get it! This the first time you are coming here?’ Laura, finally finding her voice, said, ‘Y- Yes. This is the first time I am here. Where am I? I remember that I opened the cupboard and everything went circling around me. Who are you? How do you know that I am a newcomer?’ The bunny replied in a kind voice, ‘You are in Funland, a place where children of different ages came from special cupboards to enjoy and play with the other bunnies. By the way, I am Whitetoes, the person who makes sure that everyone is having fun. I know that you are a newcomer by looking at the expression on your face.’ Laura asked a question that was bugging her all the time, ‘How did I reach F-Funland? Whitetoes said, ‘You don’t remember how you came here? You opened the special cupboard in your house and you came here! Come and have fun with the bunnies and children! They will love to play with you!’ And with that, he took her hand and pulled her down the new-mown mead. She could see, to her surprise, lot of kids playing with the bunnies. She saw the fun in it and went running to the playmates. She played and played until she had realized that she had been there for hours. So she asked Whitetoes how to go back to her home. He said, ‘Just use your key, open a portal in air and say ‘My home’ clearly and loudly. She did just that and she was back in her grandfather’s room. She saw the clock and only a few minutes had passed. At that moment, she heard the door handle being turned and realized that her mother had come back. So she opened her grandfather’s room’s door and hid the key in a special hiding place. Then she went to the living room and sat in the sofa. The door opened and in came Mrs. Larose.

Everything was back to normal but Laura still went to Funland where she found the most number of friends from different cupboards to play with.